5704. The firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. That this signifies according to the order of truths under good, is evident from the signification of “sitting according to birthright and according to youth,” as being according to the order of truths under good; for the sons of Israel represent the truths of the church in their order (see the explication of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters of Genesis); and therefore to sit “according to their birth” is according to the order of truths. But the truths of the church which the sons of Israel represent do not come into any order except through Christian good, that is, through the good of charity toward the neighbor and of love to the Lord; for in good there is the Lord, and hence in good there is heaven; consequently in good there is life, thus living active force; but never in truth without good. That good sets truths in order after its own likeness is very manifest from every love, even from the loves of self and of the world, thus from the love of revenge, of hatred, and of the like evils. They who are in these evils call evil good, because to them evil is delightful. This so-called good of theirs sets in order the falsities which to them are truths, so that they may favor it, and at last sets all these falsities which they call truths in such an order as to effect persuasion. But this order is such as is the order in hell; whereas the order of truths under the good of celestial love is such as is the order in the heavens; and from this the man who has such order within him, that is, who has been regenerated, is called a little heaven, and moreover is a heaven in the least form, for his interiors correspond to the heavens.

[2] That it is good which sets truths in order is evident from the order in the heavens. There all the societies are set in order according to the truths under good which are from the Lord; for the Lord is nothing but Divine good; Divine truth is not in the Lord, but proceeds from Him; and according to this Divine truth under Divine good are all the societies in the heavens set in order. That the Lord is nothing but Divine good, and that Divine truth is not in Him, but proceeds from Him, may be illustrated by comparison with the sun of the world. The sun is nothing but fire, and light is not in it, but proceeds from it; and likewise the things that are of light in the world, such as vegetable forms, are set in order by the heat which proceeds from the sun’s fire and is in its light, as is evident in the time of spring and summer. As universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord’s kingdom, so also is this universal. The sun represents the Lord, the fire of it His Divine love, and the heat from it the good which flows therefrom, and the light the truths which are of faith; and because they are representative, therefore in the Word in the spiritual sense by the “sun” is meant the Lord (see n. 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4321, 5097, 5377), and by “fire” love (n. 934, 4906, 5071, 5215); thus the sun’s fire is representatively the Divine love, and the heat from it is good from the Divine love. (That light represents truth may be seen above, n. 2776, 3138, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3339, 3636, 3643, 3862, 3993, 4302, 4409, 4413, 4415, 4526, 5219, 5400)

933. That “cold, and heat” signifies the state of man when he is being regenerated, which is like this in regard to the reception of faith and charity, and that “cold” signifies no faith and charity, and “heat” charity, is evident from the signification of “cold” and “heat” in the Word, where they are predicated of a man about to be regenerated, or being regenerated, or of the church. The same is also evident from the connection, that is, from what precedes and what follows; for the subject is the church (inthe preceding verse that man would not again be able so to destroy himself, in this verse that some church will always come into existence), which is first described as to the way it comes into existence, that is, when the man is being regenerated so as to become a church, and then the quality of the regenerated man is treated of; so that the treatment of the subject covers every state of the man of the church.

[2] That his state when regenerated is as described, namely, a state of cold, and heat, or of no faith and charity, and again of faith and charity, may not be so evident to anyone except from experience, and indeed from reflection in regard to the experience. And because there are few who are being regenerated, and among those who are being regenerated few if any who reflect, or who are able to reflect on the state of their regeneration, we may say a few words on the subject. When man is being regenerated, he receives life from the Lord; for before this he cannot be said to have lived, the life of the world and of the body not being life, but only that which is heavenly and spiritual. Through regeneration man receives real life from the Lord; and because he had no life before, there is an alternation of no life and of real life, that is, of no faith and charity, and of some faith and charity; no charity and faith being here signified by “cold” and some faith and charity by “heat.”

[3] As regards this subject the case is this: Whenever man is in his corporeal and worldly things, there is then no faith and charity, that is, there is “cold” for then corporeal and worldly things, consequently those which are his own, are at work, and so long as the man is in these, he is absent or remote from faith and charity, so that he does not even think about heavenly and spiritual things. The reason of this is that heavenly and corporeal things can never be together in a man, for man’s will has been utterly ruined. But when the things of man’s body and will are not at work, but are quiescent, then the Lord works through his internal man, and then he is in faith and charity, which is here called “heat.” When he again returns into the body he is again in cold; and when the body, or what is of the body, is quiescent, and as nothing, he is then in heat, and so on in alternation. For such is the condition of man that heavenly and spiritual things cannot be in him along with his corporeal and worldly things, but there are alternations. This is what takes place with everyone who is to be regenerated, and it goes on as long as he is in a state of regeneration; for in no other way is it possible for man to be regenerated, that is, from being dead to be made alive, for the reason, as already said, that his will has been utterly ruined, and is therefore completely separated from the new will, which he receives from the Lord and which is the Lord’s and not the man’s. Hence now it is evident what is here signified by “cold, and heat.”

[4] That such is the case every regenerated man may know from experience, that is to say, that when he is in corporeal and worldly things, he is absent and remote from internal things, so that he not only takes no thought about them, but feels in himself cold at the thought of them; but that when corporeal and worldly things are quiescent, he is in faith and charity. He may also know from experience that these states alternate, and that therefore when corporeal and worldly things begin to be in excess and to want to rule, he comes into straits and temptations, until he is reduced into such a state that the external man becomes compliant to the internal, a compliance it can never render until it is quiescent and as it were nothing. The last posterity of the Most Ancient Church could not be regenerated, because, as before said, with them the things of the understanding and of the will constituted one mind; and therefore the things of their understanding could not be separated from those of their will, so that they might in this manner be by turns in heavenly and spiritual things, and in corporeal and worldly things; but they had continual cold in regard to heavenly things and continual heat in regard to cupidities, so that they could have no alternation.